A Poem by Repetition by Aram Saroyan (CD), 2016

A Poem by Repetition by Aram Saroyan (CD), 2016

Natalie Czech
Germany, b. 1976
Ink-jet prints
© Natalie Czech/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

The work is part of Natalie Czech’s Poems by Repetition series, in which the artist recreates poems by well-known twentieth-century authors by highlighting or hiding prose on printed ephemera and consumer goods—from iPads and magazine articles to album covers and overdrive pedals. Here, three photographs of the top portion of the thirtieth-anniversary album cover for Pink Floyd’s hit 1973 song “Money” create Aram Saroyan’s minimalist poem “ney/mo/money.” Foregrounding both the inherent reproducibility of the photographic medium and employing techniques of repetition similar to those used by poets, the series blurs the boundaries between writing and photography.